Transit in Lagos: Bribing My Way Out

As we pulled up into Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS) my heart was beating…not so much because I was apprehensive, but because I always get excited when touching down in a new land – this time in a region I had never stepped foot in before on a continent I have only grazed the surface of in past travels.

As I stepped off the 787 and onto the jetbridge I was hit with a blast of hot, humid air. Inside the 1970s jetbridge the air was stale and warm. Coming out into the arrivals hall, there was a long hallway with a flecked wall on the left and picture windows on the right.

A few paces down and to the left is a mezzanine in which arriving passengers – even if transiting – are herded down escalators to an area in which vaccination cards are checked for yellow fever shots.
I didn’t have mine. There is no yellow fever vaccination requirement for passengers transiting through Lagos. There is a bit of ambiguity in the South African travel rules about whether a vaccination card is necessary if you are just transiting through a country in which vaccination is required. Out of an abundance of caution, I should have taken my vaccination card, but it was in California and I never received that shot anyway.

Anyway, a portly man with a governmental uniform and spectacles stopped each passenger to inspect their yellow card. When it was my turn, I explained I was just transiting. That’s where the fun began.

“Oh no, you must have one.”

“No, I am just transiting.”

“No, no. You need one even for transit.”

“Well, I don’t have one.”

“This problem. Come over here.”

He directed me to a desk in which a thick handwritten ledger was sitting.

And then it came.

“This big problem. You pay me something to make it better.”

I’ll admit it, I laughed out loud. So the horror stores were true – my first encounter with a Nigerian was a request for a bribe!

I had just slept for nine hours and was in a good mood, so I played along.

“Hmm. Is that right?”

“Yes, if you don’t, then I will take you to the government office and they will fine you $150. You just pay me $15.”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Well, you must have your vaccination card.”

At this point, my first thought was to become nasty, but I was not positive that he was wrong and since the damage was minimal, I deiced to play along.

“Let’s negotiate,” I said.

“You give me $15!

“I have Euros. I’ll give you 5 Euros”

“What’s that?”

“That’s like $7.”

“No, not enough.”

“I really don’t have anything else.”

“Not enough! Sorry!”

“Tell you what, how about I throw this in too?”

I pulled out a sealed United amenity kit from by bag from the Houston – Lagos flight and handed it to him.

He keenly examined it and said, “Oh, wallet.”

“So are we good?”

“Yes, okay.”

I smiled and extended my hand to him. He shook it with a big smile. I laughed, he was too busy examining his new amenity kit to notice.

Surely by principle I perpetuated the lifestyle of bribery by being complicit in the act. It is also harrowing to imagine that a few dollars can buy off a government health official, especially with Ebola knocking at Nigeria’s door during the time of my trip.

But weird as it sounds, I wanted to have that experience. Five Euros didn’t hurt and I have a whole garage full of United amenity kits at home, so there was no loss, just a good story.

For the record, I needed no vaccination:

So, it was onward to the immigration line.

There, I announced to a United employee standing around that I was a transit passenger and he summoned an immigration official.

“Come around the counter and go grab your bag,” said the immigration officers, wearing tan military fatigues and a tan beret. He took my passport and directed me past the immigration desks – I had made it to the other side!

Let me apologize here for the poor quality of pictures in this post. I was self-conscious about using my large DSLR so I stuck to my iPhone, which was only a iPhone 5 at the time with poor indoor picture quality.

I grabbed my bag and we went upstairs to the departure level. The check-in hall was actually not too bad and I mentioned it to the immigration officer who beamed with pride and noted that the airport is under ongoing construction and a new terminal is being built.

It was too early to check-in for my South African Airways flight to Johannesburg, so I followed the officer to immigration and screening. He must have been high ranking, because many greeted him with salutes.

Explaining to his fellow immigration officials that I was in transit, he instructed me to leave my bags in a corner of the security hall.

“Don’t worry. Bags safe.”

We then proceeded through security (shoes had to come off) and I was told that my garment bag would not be allowed as hand baggage because clothes hangars are impermissible “weapons.”

We walked my garment bag back to where my larger rollerboard was sitting and I stuffed it inside—thankfully it fit.

Back through security, we proceeded down a rancid departure hall replete with missing walls, dim lighting, and worn seating. The officer beckoned me to follow him up a steep flight of wooden stairs and we came out by the lounges. Adjacent to the Oasis lounge was the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) office and I was invited inside.

The wait

There sat a few (very lumpy) couches and I was invited to sit down as the officer used a remote control to turn on the wall-mounted air conditioning. I waited for the next two hours until check-in opened for my SA flight. Surprisingly, to me at least, wi-fi was available, free, and fast. It was actually a productive time.

There is a lot of idleness in Nigeria and during my stay in the NIS waiting room several men came in to shoot the bull with the immigration officer. All were very friendly, greeting me and wanting to know if it was my first time in Nigeria.

The conversations were in English and high-level – there was esoteric discussion on ISIS and terrorism that I was tempted at some points even to jump in on. But I remained silent and worked.

When it came time to check-in for the 22:20 SA flight, the officer and I proceeded back down through security and to the check-in hall where I was instructed to cut everyone in line and drop my bag off.

After picking up my boarding pass for the flight, he brought me back through security and back upstairs to the office, where I had left my carry-on baggage behind.

He told me I was free to go and extended his hand. I shook it and proceeded out the door and right around the corner into the Oasis Lounge, where I set up shop for the next few hours and was able to get quite a lot of work done. I will offer a closer look at the lounge in the next installment of the report.

Terminal, Shopping, and Duty Free

Prior to boarding, I wandered through the terminal….duty free shops with mostly empty shelves, a couple smoking lounges, a few eateries, and a prayer area are available. Both British Airways and Air France/KLM have lounges here that looked (relatively) impressive from the outside.

Boarding for my A343 flight to Johannesburg was done at a tiny gate with multiple passport and boarding pass checks before proceeding down the jetbridge.

CONCLUSION

Murtala Muhammed is no Singapore Changi, but it is bearable for transit and was actually a rather fun experience.

About Author

Matthew

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he
travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 120
countries over the last decade. Working both in the aviation industry
and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in the New York
Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BBC, Fox News,
CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, Toronto Star, and on NPR. Studying
international relations, American government, and later obtaining a
law degree, Matthew has a plethora of knowledge outside the travel
industry that leads to a unique writing perspective. He has served in
the United States Air Force, on Capitol Hill, and in the White House.
His Live and Let's Fly blog shares the latest news in the airline
industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs and promotions, and
detailed reports of his worldwide travel. His writings on
penandpassport.com offer more general musings on life from the eyes of a frequent traveler. He also founded awardexpert.com, a
highly-personalized consulting service that aids clients in the
effective use of their credit card points and frequent flyer miles.
Clients range from retirees seeking to carefully use their nest egg of
points to multinational corporations entrusting Matthew with the
direction and coordination of company travel.

It was not bribery but extortion. Seen this many times in Africa over my years. You were in the right re the yellow fever but he was using his position to threaten you (larger fine). I’ve seen many people tell bag boys that their luggage might be too heavy but they would appreciate help getting it through. That is a bribe. Or the guy who didn’t have his yellow fever record (entering the country) and just put a $20 bill in his passport and said he didn’t have it- bribe. Or the time a man yelled at full voice (at the bag boy), “I already gave you plenty of money to get this luggage through!!” Bribe.

LOL this is why I don’t go to Lagos. Or any other shitty country. No bribery at US CBP, Australia, Canada, Singapore, HK, Japan, and South Korea thanks very much. Maybe some good parts of western Europe too.

You sir, are misinformed and have no right to speak on a place you have not experienced. I’ve lived in New York, London, and São Paulo (Brazil) for extended periods, and go to nigeria at least twice a year. I’ve never once been asked to pay a bribe in the UK, Nigeria or Brazil. No doubt some people do get asked to, but that happens everywhere as Matthew notes above. In fact, the only place I have been asked to pay a bribe so far in my life is the US! Nigeria has its challanges as a developing nation, but as this is a travel-oriented site I would have expected more open-mindedness and less secondhand judgment.

great fun experience. hope guys see the humor and attitude of yours.
if you go to those countries be ready to accept what it is. dont bring the shitty usa attitude expecting everything to be like here in your hometown, everybody to understand english, or else stay home.

Smh at this blog post…wat did you expect regarding the level of spoken english? They actually speak and write better than the average american in the south.

You are in nigeria, so appreciate the people and its culture. Would you be happy to hear horror stories of racism from nigerians when they visit any US Border post or police brutality on black people??? Smh at you privileged white males.

Have been through Lagos airport many times and have never been extorted or asked for a bribe. Then again, I comply with the rules and carry my yellow health card. Why would a seasoned traveler visiting Africa not invest in a few harmless inoculations that could avoid great pain, not to mention this type of incident?
That being said the Lagos airport is one of the worst in the world. The lounges are pathetic except for the booze, the restaurants are atrocious and the shops, well, let’s just say I’ve never bought anything there. However, it is safe once you are inside…

Your chance of severe reaction to the yellow fever vaccine that in most cases ends in organ failure and death is 1 in 250,000. I would hardly call that harmless. I personally know someone who received the vaccine to travel overseas and adopt a child. She was dead with in 1 week of her return and yes vaccine reaction was the cause of death, I get that it is a necessary risk to take when you travel to some locations but if it isn’t required why risk it? I am traveling to Lagos and I will not be getting it. I have an 8 year old child and that risk is just too high when it isn’t a necessary risk to take. I have $15 if necessary to get though the line.

ah Lagos…I had an nearly identical transit experience, including too long in that same NIS holding room while waiting to be able to check in. At some point I bailed to one of the Priority Pass lounges nearby to get some food. Good times.

Until they revamped their Immigration facilities at Kiev, you had two choices, either spend interminable time inline or go into the supervisor’s office on some pretext and put $10 in your passport, which was then stamped allowing you to show it at the Diplomat desk and walk straight through. Immigration is now super fast but if get caught driving super fast into Kiev, expect to have to pay, i.e., bribe, the policeman who stops you for speeding. Traffic police bribery is still very much alive and well throughout Ukraine.

Mathew, Mathew, Mathew. The beauty of your stories (and I’ve only read two so far) is that they expose the narrow mindedness, depth of ignorance and naiveté of some of your readers that have accompanied us into the 21st Century. Wow !